Mosquitoes Are Spreading—and So Is the Threat They Carry
Mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit are expanding into new territory. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, and global travel are reshaping where disease-carrying mosquitoes can thrive. The consequences are already measurable: global dengue cases more than doubled in a single year, jumping from 6.5 million in 2023 to a record 14.6 million in 2024.
A 30-person startup based in Pennsylvania believes that fighting this problem requires more than simply killing mosquitoes. Mosqitter has built chemical-free devices that lure and trap female mosquitoes by mimicking the heat, scent, and breathing cues of humans—and now it wants to turn those traps into an intelligent early-warning network.
From Traps to a Monitoring Network
Anastasiia Romanova, co-founder and CEO of Mosqitter, told TechCrunch that the company set out to bring more sustainable mosquito-control products to a market still heavily reliant on chemicals.
Romanova says Mosqitter now has more than 5,000 devices operating across five continents, up from just over 250 when TechCrunch last covered the company in 2022. The next phase of its evolution: transforming its traps into an AI-powered monitoring network capable of identifying mosquito species, tracking population changes, and delivering earlier warnings about emerging disease risks.
The Biology Behind the Device
Mosqitter began its R&D in Ukraine in 2019 and launched business operations in 2021, which the company considers its official go-to-market year. The company started by studying mosquito behavior. Female mosquitoes—the only ones that bite—seek blood before laying eggs. They lay eggs on a roughly three-week cycle, typically 100 to 200 at a time.
"We saw an opportunity: if we could catch the female mosquito at the point when she is about to lay eggs, we could potentially reduce the mosquito population and prevent it from growing," Romanova said. "That's why we combined elements such as heat, similar to the temperature of human skin; scent that imitates human skin odor; and light. In the Grand model, we also use CO2 to imitate human breathing."
How Mosqitter Uses AI
Mosqitter, which presented Wednesday as part of TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield competition in downtown San Francisco, is using AI to identify the mosquitoes its devices catch. Its computer-vision system analyzes biological characteristics to distinguish between species, Romanova told TechCrunch.
To identify a mosquito, Mosqitter runs an image through its neural network, checks the result against external datasets, and has entomologists validate the findings. It then assigns a confidence score based on how closely those assessments align.
"You can think about it as three judges analyzing a case and producing a verdict," Romanova said.
Mosqitter also feeds environmental data—including weather, wind, and humidity—into its system. As it collects more data, the company plans to use those inputs to forecast changes in mosquito populations and potential health risks.
The Product Lineup
Mosqitter's portfolio currently centers on two devices:
- Mosqitter Grand — the flagship product, designed for larger areas and public spaces.
- Mosqitter Mini — targets smaller residential spaces and can also be deployed as a portable monitoring device.
The startup plans to officially introduce its Febris Monitoring System next month, adding a dedicated data layer to monitor mosquito populations and assess the potential spread of mosquito-borne diseases.
Why It Matters
As climate change pushes disease-carrying mosquitoes into new regions and dengue cases reach record highs, tools that combine sustainable trapping with real-time species identification and risk forecasting could give public health officials a critical head start. Mosqitter's bet is that the same device that kills a mosquito can also generate the data needed to predict the next outbreak.
via TechCrunch